What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Bardiche]

Playing Yggdra Union at the moment. Thanks to all the MVP bonuses, and cards, and morale, and weapon triangle, and the non-descript HP statuses etc... I don't think it'll be all that easy to stat topic. Will probably not do it; I decked Milanor out pretty high, since he gets MVP a lot and gets a LOT of +1/+2 MVP bonuses to his stats. MVP bonus can't be circumvented, barring using another character as ace and then... Yeah. It's really difficult.

Think I just ought to stat all my chars at the end, just for the sake of it?

Need to bust through the forest right naow. Russel rocks, Cruz sucks, Milanor is badassing and Durant is an accessory.

[Veryslightlymad]

I've been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2 and not getting better as fast as I would like.

Hey, did they delete the stage where you attack control points from different control points until they're all taken? It had a map and it had like, six that could combat each other, and the stage would open up different parts. I forget what it was called but it was easily my favorite stage.

[Scar]

P4:

Bonus boss in the castle can suck a fat one. Rampage sucks ass.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I think for Christmas we should just get Meep a dong clamp so he can come to grips with his masochism. Anyone wanna set up a Paypal account?

[hinode]

I believe people are planning on sending him Unlimited SaGa to play, which would probably be worse.

[Bardiche]

Hey, I liked Magna Carta.

Up until I found out the heroine turned out to be a hero.

[Talaysen]

Playing Yggdra Union at the moment. Thanks to all the MVP bonuses, and cards, and morale, and weapon triangle, and the non-descript HP statuses etc... I don't think it'll be all that easy to stat topic. Will probably not do it; I decked Milanor out pretty high, since he gets MVP a lot and gets a LOT of +1/+2 MVP bonuses to his stats. MVP bonus can't be circumvented, barring using another character as ace and then... Yeah. It's really difficult.

Think I just ought to stat all my chars at the end, just for the sake of it?

No.  Yggdra Union is not stat topicable and I don't even know why you are even considering it.  Stop.

[Niu]

I had been thinking it was something to do with the exclamation marks that showed up occassionally and couldn't really see how it related; this way of looking at it helps in some respects, although not entirely. In any case some artifacts of the battle system don't play very nicely with this.
For example, take Aschen, take her first moveset, against a blocking enemy that she smashes the shield of on the penultimate attack, and she'll do her jumpkick while it's too high in the air and miss, and half the time this triggered a forced evasion.

So your problem is basically, you miss, enemy drops to the ground, force evasion kicks in. It is better you change your attack order for them to be easier to follow. I literally put attacks that hits upward after every up lifting move, and you want to begin a combo with an uplifting move if the enemy is heavy. Or just go with Reiji, who is good at locking enemy at a specific spot in air, or Kaguya who just hits everywhere.

[Bardiche]

Playing Yggdra Union at the moment. Thanks to all the MVP bonuses, and cards, and morale, and weapon triangle, and the non-descript HP statuses etc... I don't think it'll be all that easy to stat topic. Will probably not do it; I decked Milanor out pretty high, since he gets MVP a lot and gets a LOT of +1/+2 MVP bonuses to his stats. MVP bonus can't be circumvented, barring using another character as ace and then... Yeah. It's really difficult.

Think I just ought to stat all my chars at the end, just for the sake of it?

No.  Yggdra Union is not stat topicable and I don't even know why you are even considering it.  Stop.

Eh, figured each of the generals/leaders/PCs have stats which you can access from the menu screen. The stats of units are also derived from leaders, as shown by Milanor getting critical'd by a Valkyrie unit, and that Valkyrie unit still losing despite Milanor being down.

Figured the HP could be measured by average lasting time in battle against 2 Star enemies, or whatever type is common near the end, and then attack derived from the same values. A little arithmetic here and there... but it's probably not so good for dueling either way.

Even without stat topic'ing it, it's a fun game. Although I hate the way equipment/morale is set up. Not enough medals. Grr.

[Monkeyfinger]

I've been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2 and not getting better as fast as I would like.

Hey, did they delete the stage where you attack control points from different control points until they're all taken? It had a map and it had like, six that could combat each other, and the stage would open up different parts. I forget what it was called but it was easily my favorite stage.

That is Hydro and it is still around. No official maps ever get "deleted."

It's a little less popular than most official maps, but most servers still have it as part of their rotation. Sounds like you've just been unlucky, it shouldn't be that hard to find a server that's playing hydro.

[Sierra]

P4: Some people call spoilers a space cowboy! Some people call spoilers the gangster of lo~ove. So yeah, another shadow bites the dust. Interesting skillset on that last PC.

Somewhere in September or October now, I think. (Today was kind of a blur, really. I blame sleep deprivation which I am now compounding by staying up to post about it). New maxed links: Hierophant and Devil. Maxed characteristics: Expression, Courage, Knowledge. The in-dungeon healer is finally getting to be something less than extortionate; can just about pay the costs with whatever money I make while burning through my SP. Should max out the link next time I play and make this more efficient. Which means that dungeon trips will no longer take more than one day in-game. Yaaay, more time for S. Links.

[Grefter]

Goddammit would you people please stop making me want to play Persona 4.

Failing that, tell me its gameplay is at least as good as FES's and that its story and characters don't suck as much, so I could conceivably convince myself that playing it would be The Right Thing to Do.

I'll stop making you want to play it when you freaking play it. Anyway, it's basically P3 with polish. This is good! P3's random stupid is mostly gone. Combat is mostly the same but with a few tweaks; the obvious change is that you have full control over the party now if you want it, but there's some other minor additions (like PCs who have high S. Link levels getting nifty support abilities you can use in place of a One More! in battle). I'd call the writing a step up from P3. Can't really give a conclusive verdict on the story yet, though the central plot I'm moving towards looks at least amusingly quirky (as opposed to "The incarnation of death wants to kill everyone. You must stop it.")

~

Oh, and for those playing it: anyone stumbled on a persona that naturally learns Rampage? Chie's doesn't count, no, since I need to make this myself for an S. Link event. Margaret's requests make me something something.

Lets clear this up, it is still a shitty dating sim with a dungeon crawler mini game right?  The game is still in essence a flaming pile of shit correct?

[Cmdr_King]

If by that you mean a game that somehow marries tough as nails SMT dungeons with actual plotting and character interaction into something actually enjoyable, then yes.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

So... you mean they cut out all the random dungeons and needless level grinding along with the total FAQbait OHKO enemies and tossed out all the dating sim elements?

(Yes, I know SMT would never eliminate all the tedious bullshit in their games. I am being facetious).

[Niu]

Difficulty speaking, the random felt not too bad, easier or equal to SMT3 I think.
The dating sim, not good, but it at least make it pass the shitty stage. There are more variety on how some event splay out, and a couple are fairly realistic.

[Captain K.]

P4:  Trying to save the Full Monty.  Opinion of the game is going down rapidly due to the TV portion of the game.  Too much random bullshit from enemies.

[Shale]

So I picked up Grandia III on a whim. Just arrived on the mainland. The story isn't too shitty right now, but it is extremely generic, and Miranda is very much the saving grace of the cast so I will be sad when she's gone. Alonso's pretty cool too, but mainly because he's played by Bob Buchholz doing his Beck voice (his Excellent victory quote is perfect). Alfina's sole good moment so far has been the post-battle scene with Kornell (the pre-battle scene was also fairly amusing). Yuki is generic and suffering from a nasty case of Hiro syndrome. (bad Game Arts! Bad!)

Gameplay-wise, it's definitely the best Grandia. Actually competent fights and more tools on the PC side to compensate. SP recovery rates are nicely balanced, and Secret Methods show up often enough that the SaGa-style advancement isn't obnoxious. Magic is kind of overpowered so far - Tremor boosted by a Mana Egg has been a fairly effective slaughtering tool, and Crackle is badass ST damage available from the start of the game. I like what they did with Howl, making it more useful for tying enemies up forever instead of straight damage.

Elite Beat Agents: Still beating my head against Jumpin' Jack Flash on Sweatin'. Ow.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

The gap in worth between physical skills and magic just widens. You'll see when you get egg fusion.

[Excal]

For all that Skills do a wonderful job of evening that gap nicely.  Aerial Combos, once you can get them reliably, equal pain for the enemies.

[Sierra]

P4:  Trying to save the Full Monty.  Opinion of the game is going down rapidly due to the TV portion of the game.  Too much random bullshit from enemies.

Seriously, man? I don't see anything that makes it worse about this than P3. Unless you're Tallychu and play on hard mode, but you get what you deserve in that case.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

For all that Skills do a wonderful job of evening that gap nicely.  Aerial Combos, once you can get them reliably, equal pain for the enemies.

So do spells, though, and they have a wider radius. Air Combos are mostly nice for saving some MP, but I generally preferred to have the mages MT OHKO losers instead of playing around. The game warrants this blitzing approach. The skills do mean that Ulf is the general LVP instead of Jogurt with actual stats, at least, and they give Yuki a bit more leeway as well. >_>

[Excal]

Eh, that only really works because you have the MP restoration items to make it work.  Otherwise you burn through all of your MP before you're halfway through the dungeon.  And while Dahna does have MP restoration, it's not so effective as to make that strategy flawless, as well as needing the enemies to bunch up to make it work.

That said, I'm not sure who my LVP in G3 was.  Possibly still Ulf just due to the fact that he lacks solid MT damage.

[Talaysen]

P4:  Trying to save the Full Monty.  Opinion of the game is going down rapidly due to the TV portion of the game.  Too much random bullshit from enemies.

Seriously, man? I don't see anything that makes it worse about this than P3. Unless you're Tallychu and play on hard mode, but you get what you deserve in that case.

Even on Expert, I'm seeing less bullshit than in P3 so far.  Optional bullshit bosses aside, but, y'know, optional bullshit bosses and SMT go hand in hand.  Better than bullshit forced bosses.

Could change, I guess.

[Grefter]

MP was never really a problem in G3, but then I also didn't consider skills/physicals that bad either (Flash/Berserker Yuki is greaaat for tying up enemies and Shadowwhatever Ulf is fairly solid damage if you build up in such a way to tear the game apart).  A lot of it is dependant on how much you are prepared to punish the game though.  With minimal twinking and just gaming the Casino Magic will have a huge lead, but not really advance much.  With explicit twinking, physicals aren't lagging behind much by the point the Casino is really abusable anyway.

[Monkeyfinger]

The biggest threat in G3 is losing one or both of your mages before they can do their thing, then getting your whole party ripped to shreds as you frantically try to bring them back, or rush the enemies without them.

It's not really a limited resource management game so much as a "effectively use the tools you're given" game.